The 2026 GAA season is beginning to take precise shape, with a packed calendar of league and championship action leading all the way to the All-Ireland Hurling Final on Sunday, 10th July and the All-Ireland Football Final on Sunday, 26th July.

The publication of the Master Fixture List puts structure to the Allianz League and Provincial Championship timetables that lead all the way to those decider days in July.

The campaign will start, as ever, with the Allianz Leagues, which return in late January. The opening rounds will set the tone for the year, with February and early March providing the traditional rhythm of Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons before league honours are settled.

The Allianz Football League Finals will take place in the last weekend of March, while the Allianz Hurling Finals are pencilled in for early March, allowing counties a clear run-in to the championship.

In football, the provincial series begins on the weekend of 11–12 April, with knockout ties across Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connacht.

The latter two are scheduled to crown their champions on the weekend of 9–10 May, while Leinster and Ulster will close out their provincial series a week later on 16–17 May.

In hurling, the round-robin provincial championships get underway one week later, across 19–20 April, with counties diving into six weeks of high-stakes action in Leinster and Munster.

By early June, the picture will be clear, with the Leinster and Munster Hurling Finals scheduled for the weekend of 6–7 June, marking one of the defining moments of the early summer.

Once provincial honours are settled, the spotlight shifts entirely to the All-Ireland Championships.

The hurling series will move swiftly towards its climax, with quarter-finals and semi-finals condensed into June and early July before the season reaches its climax with the All-Ireland Hurling Final on Sunday 10th July.

Two weeks later, football will take its turn. The revamped All-Ireland Football Championship format — now bedded in after its latest refinements — will produce group games, knockouts and quarter-finals through June and July before semi-final weekends set up the ultimate prize.

The journey will culminate on Sunday 26th July, when Ireland’s two best teams meet in Croke Park for the 2026 All-Ireland Senior Football Final.

The structure also allows a window so that neither of the All Ireland Finals clashes wityh the FIFA World Cup Final being played in new York on Sunday 19th July. It’s not a deal breaker for the Association but the avoidance of a direct clash is a handy by product of the way the calendar falls next year.

 

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